Hopper



June 20, 1950 A. c. LA RlVlERE HOPPER Filed Nov. 13, 1946 Iii! I 1,515--|l||||ll llll llllllllllll lllll Patented June 20, 1950 HOPPER AlfredClaude La Riviere, London, England Application November 13, 1946, SerialNo. 709,553 In Great Britain J anuary 31, 1946 3 Claims. 1

The present invention relates to hoppers for feeding or conveyingmaterial, and more particularly granular material, to grinding andcrushing machines.

The main object of the present invention is the provision of meanswhereby the width of the opening through which the material is fed fromthe hopper to the grinding machine can be readily adjusted in accordancewith the desired rate of feed.

According to this invention the hopper is formed of two co-operatingparts, namely a fixed front and a movable rear part. The front partcomprises a vertical front plate and two vertical side plates, allpreferably formed with a single metal sheet. Beneath the lower edge ofthe front plate an opening extending across the width of the hopperserves to feed the material into the machine.

The rear part of the hopper in a box-like structure, preferably also ofsheet metal, of which the forwardly extending side members fit withinand are pivotally secured to the side plates of the fixed front part.The latter is fitted with a toggle or some equivalent device by means ofwhich the rear part can be tilted to vary the position of its front edgewith consequent variation in the width of the opening defined by thelower edge of the front plate and the front edge of the rear part.Suitable means are provided for temporarily locking the rear part in thedesired position.

The feed from the hopper may be either a gravity one into a machinelocated beneath the hopper or a suction one into a machine located abovethe hopper.

One form of construction of the invention as applied to a hopper fromwhich the material is drawn by suction is illustrated in the annexeddrawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation, and

Fig. 2 is a plan.

In these drawings the fixed front part of the hopper comprises avertical front plate a and two vertical side plates a and a Beneath thelower edge of the front plate an opening c extending across the width ofthe hopper serves as an outlet for the material to be ground. The rearpart of the hopper is a box-like structure b of which two forwardlyextending side members b and b fit within the side plates 11 and a towhich they are secured by pivots d. The front part is provided with atoggle device e by means of which the rear part b can be tilted to varythe position of its front edge with consequent variation in the width ofthe opening at c defined by the lower edge of the front plate a and thefront edge of the rear part b. The latter may be temporarily locked inposition by the toggle device e. The material is fed from the hopperinto a suction pipe 1 which leads the material to a machine (not shown)located above the hopper.

I claim:

1. A hopper for feeding or conveying material into a grinding orcrushing machine comprising a fixed member having a substantiallyvertical front plate, side flanges carried by said plate, a base flangecarried by said plate, a partition adjacent to and spaced from saidvertical plate, said partition forming together with said vertical platea suction pipe, said partition being lesser in length than said verticalplate thereby forming a space between the end of said suction pipe andthe bottom of said fixed member, a boxlike hopper bin, means carried bythe side flanges of said fixed member for rotatably supporting saidhopper bin, and means carried by said hopper bin for adjusting thedischarge of the contents of the hopper with relation to said suctionpipe.

2. A hopper for feeding or conveying material into a grinding orcrushing machine as claimed in claim 1 characterized by the fact thatsaid partition is of U-shaped construction with the base of greaterlength and which is inverted and secured to said vertical front platewhereby to form a suction pipe for drawing off the material dischargedfrom the hopper into the space between the base flange of said fixedmember and the end of said suction pipe.

3. A hopper for feeding or conveying material into a grinding orcrushing machine as claimed in claim 1 characterized by the fact thatsaid side flanges of said fixed member are bent at substantially rightangles to receive within their confines a portion of said hopper andwhereby said adjusting means for regulating the discharge of thematerial from said hopper is carried by said hopper at one side of saidpivotal support proximate one end of said hopper.

ALFRED CLAUDE LA RIVIERE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in th file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Weyandt July 6, 1943

